I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 815 - Chapter 815 Traitor

Chapter 815: Traitor Chapter 815: Traitor Editor: Atlas Studios As the demand for seeds for Dry Rice No.

1 this year had increased by more than five times compared to last year, Mu Yangling wanted to inspect the performance of the seeds, so she specially went to the farmstead to check it out.

Mu Yangling had experience with farming.

At this moment, the seeds had just been planted.

Even if the seeds had sprouted, she was worried that the seedlings would not be able to survive the cold spring weather that was coming up.

Hence, she dug out some seeds to check.

Surprisingly, a lot of the seeds randomly dug out were actually Dry Rice No.

1.

Dry Rice No.

1 was the result of many hybridization experiments conducted by Mu Yangling using the wild rice that Qi Haoran had sent over and the rice that was commonly planted in the north.

This being the first-generation hybrid rice, Mu Yangling valued it very much.

In fact, there were three separate fields in the residence that were specially solely dedicated to planting this grain seed.

Mu Yangling had personally planted it with Little Bear, so she was extremely familiar with this grain seed.

Even though it had already sprouted, she could tell that this was not her seed.

This year was the first year that taxes were being collected on a nation-wide scale since Qi Xiuyuan ascended the throne.

Previously, he had strongly supported her Harvest Grain Store and even requested that Dry Rice No.

1 be planted on no less than 30% of the fields suited for planting dry rice.

This was so as to collect more taxes and relieve the pressure on the national treasury.

For the past three years, the national treasury had been funded by Fan Zijin’s businesses and borrowing.

Considering he was running a country, such methods weren’t a long-term solution.

Fan Zijin had also told them that three years was already his limit.

If the national treasury still didn’t start generating revenues by then, he would have to start selling off his businesses in order to repay the debts owed to those rich merchants.

At that time, funding to the national treasury would be completely cut off, making turmoil within the country a certainty.

This was a crucial year!

She wouldn’t allow anything to go wrong at such a crucial timing, much less be the source of the problem herself!

Considering the seeds had been checked at every stage, she didn’t expect that there would still be a problem.

Troubled, Mu Yangling said, “I wonder if the problem lies solely with our farmstead, or if it’s widespreadaEUR|” “Don’t worry.” Qi Haoran patted her shoulder and said, “I’ll go and see Liu Qing tomorrow and get him to investigate with the officials.

Since we discovered it early, we can just plow again and replant it.” Mu Yangling was still worried.

“How can it be so simple?

Even if there are extra seeds, there won’t be many of them.

It’s fine if it’s not widespread, but I’m afraidaEUR|” Mu Yangling felt a little uneasy, fearing that this was a widespread issue.

Otherwise, who would dare to target Prince’s estate alone?

Mu Yangling was uneasy for the entire night.

The next morning, the guards who stayed on in the farmyard brought the estate manager and two farmers to seek an audience.

Not bothering with breakfast, Qi Haoran and Mu Yangling handed the children to Mama Wang and hurried to the reception pavilion to meet them.

The estate manager trembled as he knelt on the ground.

Two farmers were tied up behind him and were lying on the ground.

When they saw the Prince and the Princess Consort, they were terrified.

“Your Highness, I’ve investigated.

These two farmers secretly swapped the seeds when they sent them to the tenant farmers,” the guard reported.

Qi Haoran looked at Mu Yangling, indicating for her to handle it.

The matters in the residence had always been handed over to Mu Yangling.

Unless it was necessary, he would not interfere.

Mu Yangling looked at the estate manager and asked, “Do you know the two of them?” “Yes, I know them.

Li Er is my wife’s younger brother, and Zou Da is a bonded tenant under my management.

Both of them signed an irrevocable contract with the Prince’s estate.

They usually do some chores in the farmstead as well as farm the fields.” Bonded tenants were different from tenant farmers.

To a certain extent, tenant farmers were considered self-employed people who rented the estate owner’s fields, and were usually ordinary civilians.

When they were free, they would help the estate owner plow the fields or do some chores.

Though they would be severely exploited if they encountered unkind owners, they could terminate the relationship with relative ease.

Once they paid up the rent, they were free to leave.

Moreover, tenant farmers could also have their own private assets.

However, it was different for the bonded tenants.

Most of the bonded tenants had signed irrevocable contracts while some had signed revocable contracts.

However, no matter what, bonded tenants were still considered slaves belonging to their master.

Not to mention that their life and death were in the master’s hands, the master also had the right to control and sell them.

Generally speaking, the bonded tenants were much more loyal than the tenant farmers.

When he heard that it was a bonded tenant who betrayed them, Qi Haoran couldn’t help but narrow his eyes and come up with conspiracy theories.

He felt that these two must have been instructed to come to his farmstead.

However, the reality was that Li Er and Zou Da liked to drink and gamble.

Because they owed some money outside, they were forced to use the power of the Prince’s estate to renege on their debt.

However, Mu Yangling imposed very strict rules on her people and had long let it be known that anyone who abused the power of the Prince’s estate to do anything illegal outside would be punished severely.

Therefore, they had been hesitating.

However, the gambling house could not let them owe them forever.

They came looking for them and planned to chop off their hands to repay the debt.

As they were slaves to begin with, Li Er and Zou Da could not be sold off to repay their debt.

The only thing the creditors could do was to chop off their hands.

It was only because someone repaid their gambling debt on their behalf that they managed to escape this calamity.

However, that person did not give them the money for nothing.

He only had one requestaEUR”he wanted as many seeds of Dry Rice No.

1 as possible!

The seeds of Dry Rice No.

1 were not expensive.

If one wanted to buy them, they could.

However, in order to prevent the gentry and landlords from monopolizing the seeds, the Harvest Grain Store had required that the number of seeds purchased by each family could not exceed the number of seeds needed for the fields they owned.

Moreover, each family could only buy seeds for at most 50 acres of land.

If they wanted to buy seeds, they had to do so using their household registration certificate.

Anyone found to be reselling these seeds would be permanently blacklisted by the Harvest Grain Store, and a ten-year purchase ban would be imposed on their entire family.

This method greatly ensured the farming rate of ordinary farmers and prevented the gentry from monopolizing the seeds.

Although she had offended a large number of people by imposing this rule, Mu Yangling had the backing of Prince Rong and the Emperor.

Furthermore, since this business was her personal dowry, no one could criticize her for it.

After all, she was the only one who possessed these seeds.

Therefore, if that person wanted more Dry Rice No.

1 seeds, they couldn’t get them from the Harvest Grain Store.

Furthermore, seeds purchased from the farmers who had planted Dry Rice No.

1 the previous year weren’t of good quality.

It couldn’t be helped.

Back then, the farmers had bought seeds from Mu Yangling on credit.

According to the contract, they had to repay her using the best grain seeds first.

And if they wanted to sell grains, they had to prioritize selling to the Harvest Grain Store when the price fluctuation did not exceed 80%.

On the other hand, the acquisition price of the Harvest Grain Store had always been the same as that of the other grain stores.

This meant that the best batch of grain seeds and grains would always go to the Harvest Grain Store.

As such, in the secondary market, the gentry only had access to the grains left behind by the farmers for personal consumption.

Supple and large grain seeds were rare and far between.

However, everyone knew that grain seeds had to be chosen from the rice ears, not from a single grain.

This was because a grain seed might be very plump, but it might appear on a rice ear with short ears and few grains.

By choosing from the rice ears, the grain seeds chosen would be more likely to produce a harvest of similar quality subsequently.

Li Er and Zou Da cried bitterly.

“Your Highness, he said that he wouldn’t ask for too many.

We only gave him the seeds of the fields we were in charge of, and he used another type of grain seeds to exchange for them.

However, who knew that he would go back on his word immediately and ask for more seeds?

Considering 60% of the tenant farmers in the farmstead had planted Dry Rice No.

1 before, how would we dare to replace it?

He was the one who suggested we target those farmers that had no experience with planting Dry Rice No.

1.

Because the grain seeds he handed us were also supple and large, one couldn’t easily tell the difference, so we boldly switched them.”

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